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$36.75 per hour (FEMA, 2010). The town’s contractor quoted $80 per man hour to prune a very large tree in early 2012. We recommend contracting this work for the immediate future, and consider expanding the urban forestry program to perform this work in two years. Required equipment : Bucket truck and/or climbing gear, chainsaws, rigging equipment; chip- per, trucks, and/or trailers to remove materials Additional Street Tree Responsibilities: The following activities will also be performed by the Urban Forestry Program, but the amount, timing, and cost of work cannot be estimated in advance: • Provide assistance and advice to residents upon request • Inspect trees for pine beetles and other severe pests upon request • Assist with storm response and cleanup • Correct conflicts between trees and sidewalks, streets, or other infrastructure. • Inspect trees planted by developers to ensure appropriate species, location, condition, and methods used
Currently, all of these responsibilities fall on the Urban Forester, but they could be performed by other urban forestry program staff, depending on their training and availability.
Additional Urban Forestry Program Responsibilities
So far, this chapter has focused entirely on the upkeep, removal, and planting of street trees. However, the Urban Forestry Program currently also has responsibility for maintaining trees in parks, facilities, greenways, delivering educational programs and providing support for other town departments. As these resources have not yet been inventoried, and these additional responsibilities are often temporary in nature, it is more difficult to plan and calculate the costs of this work. However, we believe that this work is important, and that the costs of hav- ing internal staff perform these functions will likely be less expensive than relying on private contractors.
Within the next 5 years, it is recommended that the urban forestry program perform the following actions.
Town Forests
• Assess the composition of each stand within forests on town property, documenting the species composition, average diameter and height of dominant trees, and other special considerations
A turkey takes flight in a town-owned forest near Heritage High School.
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